


Cardboard Halls and Fishbowl Walls

by Iced_Coffee



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Depersonlization, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Frisk Orientated, Gender-Neutral Chara, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Isolation, Not Based on Save/Load, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Pre-Undertale, Reader Is Chara, Reader Is Frisk, Reader Is Not Frisk, Slow Burn, Starvation, it's complicated - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 22:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11240775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iced_Coffee/pseuds/Iced_Coffee
Summary: It was different this time, not like before.This time the sky was alight with colors, and magic hummed deep within your soul.Last time a cruel world crackled in black and white, it had broke you long ago, leaving you only a numb void.Their need to survive fills as you trickle away into the background.





	1. In Grey

It was different this time. When you saw the sky once again.

Before they escaped high above, and fell into the world of love and kindness.

\-----

Their world was dim, only lit in the glow of kindness, given only in the face of pity.

Their world felt in black and white. Filled with the gnawing hunger and aching bones, and nights hidden shivering under thin blankets and cardboard boxes. They walked in a world with only a thirsting, burning need, a need to survive. A world filled with hate and anger. Facing rejection at every turn, the only touch they knew was one of loneliness and pain.

Food was scarce, shelter was rundown, and their clothing well worn. Nonetheless, they pursued life; begging for scraps, stealing only when none would give, building shelter as best they could, and barring the harsh colds of winter.

They pushed forwards, as if only to spite a cruel world that was determined to extinguish the growing flame of hope ablaze in your eyes.. As the difficult child they continue to be, they refused to bow to the staggering odds against you, and so we pressed forth.

\---

Weeks passed in bursts of feeling.

 

The security of a full nights sleep in a blanketed nook, and the numbing pressure that hides as trigger for safety. You were content with the dull evening wind that lulls the world into a dazed unknown of tranquility. Your days filled with the aching pressure of cold and hunger, quieted by the whispers of the end. You wasted away in dirtied boxes, covered in the unwavering promise of the forgetting the past.

As faces fade from your memory, your body wastes away as a sleep takes hold. Awareness fades from the vision you once had, of friends, of love... Nothing matters, only the bliss of eternal silence.

 

You slip away and they take hold.

 

 

 


	2. Winter Frost

Cardboard box 

It was slow, and then you left all at once. You were there, and then they were. You slipped away, slowly, like water dripping from a facet left cracked open enough for round droplets to come forth and drop. You drained from consciousness, plunging into an ocean of unawareness.

It was night when they came for the first time. 

You were a shivering bundled ball of too big sweaters, shoved in a makeshift shelter of a flooding cracked apartment store. You had fashioned a small living space with scraps of fabric and a tarp you were lucky enough to find buried under the smaller chunks of debris littering the store. It kept most of the water out, and allowed for a slightly less damp place to rest. 

It had snowed the night before. The city dusted in the cold powder, leaving sidewalks slick and reflective. Perhaps in another life you would have cheered, and ran outside to play in the frozen water vapor, but for you the snow only meant numbing fingers, and a sentence for shivering nights.

The sound of your ragged breaths and dripping water barely heard over the chaotic rumblings of city life. It had been days since you had found any source of food, and the wind gusts continued to chill you through the thin blankets and worn sweater you would have for years to come. Shivers racked your body as you curled inwards, your bruised ribs protested as you shifted to conserve heat, and your head throbbing in slowing beats.

It was the end. No food, no heat, and no chance for survival. The snow had crept in from a sliver of roof that had been swept away, dusting your body in pellets of white. The pleasant warmth of the unrelenting cold began to numb your fingers, gently soothing the dulling pain of the biting wind. The heat in your breath had cooled, no longer warming your pale hands as you desperately clutched them to your chest, and tried to fight off the dropping temperature. 

You refused to give in to the relenting cold, the hunger eating your bones, and the pain screaming from your ribs and head. As you burrowed into the old sweater, you fought to keep your mind awake, your eyes open, and the heart in your chest beating.

This was not the end for you. You had evaded death’s comforting hands at every step you took, the hard road was less travelled, and you were determined to spite the unforgiving world at every turn. But, as the fog of sleep eased your protesting mind, your eyes began to slip shut, and your body fell limp. 

You took a final a shallow breath, before fading into the land of dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you guys rather have shorter chapters more often, or longer chapters less often?


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